Instagram Privacy for Kids

Instagram has millions of users, the majority of them adults. However, did you know that there is also a huge amount of underage kids? Well, technically that’s not a problem since Instagram’s minimum age is 14, but we’ve seen several cases of kids below that age that have made their own personal account.

Picture of Instagram’s official feed on Instagram.

The main issue here is that most people, including ourselves, don’t usually read the Terms of Service when registering on an app or website. Kids are less likely to read them since they’re written in complicated legal terms that a young person probably won’t understand.

However, a woman named Jenny Afia, expert in security, decided to take the entire text shown to all new registering users and translate it into a more simple version so that a 10 year old can understand it. Then, as an experiment, this rewritten text was shown to a group of young British kids. They were shocked to discover what power Instagram had over their content, and one even decided to delete his account.

What’s clear with this experiment is that changes must be made. The Terms of Service must be easy to comprehend for everyone, and not just on Instagram. Internet security is a serious issue, and we think most apps and webpages approach it the wrong way.

On January 10, 2017 / Instagram news / Comments Off on Instagram Privacy for Kids